


They Shine For Her

by DaringToWonder



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:27:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24130558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaringToWonder/pseuds/DaringToWonder
Summary: Thirteen and her fam meet Clara at a store. Starts out pretty happy, but the end is really sad. Based off of the song "Yellow" by Coldplay.
Kudos: 15





	They Shine For Her

**Author's Note:**

> Be warned, my friend read this and told me that I hadn't warned her enough how sad it made her. Set after "Rosa".  
> I wish the Doctor would open up a little more, but we'll see.

"Where are we now?" Graham asked. "And - when?"  
Team TARDIS stepped out in a cheerful toy shop in a mall. The Doctor happily scronched.  
"We're in a shop! Love a shop. It's near London, in your present time - or it could be a few years back. It'll be fine. Want to look around?"  
"Yeah!" Yaz agreed and joked, "I hope you brought money this time."  
The Doctor fished around in her endless pockets. "I'll be good. I probably won't buy anything anyway..." As she said this, her eyes drifted to a hat shop across from them.  
"Off we go, then!"  
She promptly walked into a shelf and fell over.  
"Doctor, are you alright?" asked Yaz.  
"Yep!" She replied breathlessly. "Sorry, still getting used to the new body - steering's a bit off."  
Her companions decided to take that as teasing.  
The Doctor was tapped on the shoulder from behind.  
"Are you alright, madam?"  
The Doctor turned around and immediately paled.  
"C-Clara?"  
Clara Oswald wrinkled her forehead. "How do you know me?"  
The fam turned to her for an explanation as well.  
"Oh, Clara, it's the Doctor!"  
Confusion and a hint of sadness crossed Clara's face for half a second before joy washed over her features.  
"Of course it is."  
They met in a hug of complete happiness and reunion. A small part of the hole in the Doctor filled.  
"I see you like hugs now?" Clara teased.  
"Hugs are the best," the new Doctor declared. "But don't let the other me hear you say that."  
"Uh, Doctor?" Ryan asked. "How do you know each other?"  
"Oh, right! Guys, meet my friend and past companion Clara. Clara, meet my new friends: Yaz, Graham, and Ryan."  
They exchanged greetings.  
"So, you're travelling with the Doctor, right? How long?" asked Clara.  
"About a week," answered Ryan.  
Yaz asked, "When did you travel with her?"  
Clara looked to the Doctor, spirits slightly lowered. "How long has it been for you?"  
The Doctor sighed. "A few hundred years." A sad smile.  
"A few hundred-?" Graham wondered aloud. "Doc, how old are you?"  
"I stopped keeping count. Around 2,000, I think. Well - minus the 4.5 billion years I spent in the confession dial." Her expression apologized to Clara.  
"I never heard about that!"  
"It hasn't happened yet for you." She paused. "When is it for you?"  
"You regenerated. You're a grumpy old Scotsman now," she teased, smiling. "You pick me up every Wednesday."  
The fam gave the Doctor questioning looks.  
"You know when we first met on the train?" Nods. "I said then that half an hour ago I was a white-haired Scotsman. I wasn't kidding. Well - except for the Scottish bit. I just had an accent. Really, I'm from Gallifrey."  
Clara smiled in realization. "You're a Time Lady now."  
Graham absorbed the information. Then, to Clara, "How come you can't travel with the Doc anymore?"  
Clara only glanced at the Doctor. "She's not allowed to tell me until it happens."

Later:  
The Doctor had been chatting with Clara for a while. The fam had eventually left to explore more of the store and leave them to talk.  
Clara was in the middle of talking when her phone rang.  
"Oh! Hey Danny, what's up?  
"Sounds fun! When?  
"Tonight? Okay, I'll see you there!  
"Bye."  
"What is it?" the Doctor asked.  
Clara smiled. "Going on a date with Danny."  
"The P.E. teacher?"  
Clara playfully shoved the Doctor. "You haven't changed one bit!"  
The Doctor smiled. "That's why I have my Carer."  
"And now?"  
"And now I have my gang. Band? Group? I dunno, but we travel together. It's good."  
Clara nodded. "So you're OK?"  
The Doctor shrugged. "As OK as I can be. Happy as a clam. Actually, I met this really huge clam once... right. Anyway. Are you? Happy, I mean."  
"Yeah," Clara answered. "I'm pretty good. Sometimes, though, it feels like I have two lives. One on Earth, and one with you. With him."  
She glanced at her watch, and her voice penetrated the heaviness starting to fill the air. "Got to go! Get home, change, grade papers..."  
"Right," the Doctor agreed. "Wait - Clara, come here."  
Clara gave her a questioning look and took a step closer. "What?"  
The Doctor swallowed the lump in her throat. "You're not supposed to know this me. You can't know - I can't know. I'm so sorry."  
And with sorrow in her heart, she erased all traces of her visit from Clara's mind.

Later:  
The Doctor sat in the console room of the TARDIS, picking at the hem of her coat.  
"Look at the stars,  
Look how they shine for you  
And everything you do.  
Yeah, they were all yellow.  
I came along.  
I wrote a song for you  
And all the things you do  
And it was called Yellow.  
So then I took my turn,  
Oh what a thing to have done,  
And it was all yellow."  
She looked up, wishing for Clara. 'My Clara'.  
"Your skin,  
Oh yeah, your skin and bones  
Turn into something beautiful.  
You know,  
You know I love you so.  
You know I love you so."  
The first face her last face had seen.  
"I swam across,  
I jumped across for you.  
Oh, what a thing to do  
'Cause you were all yellow.  
I drew a line,  
I drew a line for you.  
Oh, what a thing to do,  
And it was all yellow."  
Clara had died trying to save another. How could she have forgotten that face for so long?  
"Your skin,  
Oh yeah your skin and bones  
Turn into something beautiful.  
And you know  
For you I'd bleed myself dry.  
For you I'd bleed myself dry."  
Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore'.  
"It's true,  
Look how they shine for you,  
Look how they shine for you,  
Look how they shine.  
Look how they shine for you,  
Look how they shine for you,  
Look how they shine.  
Look at the stars,  
Look how they shine for you  
And all the things you do."  
She looked up to see the fam standing in front of her. She had no idea how long they'd been there.  
"That's really pretty," Ryan offered.  
"Thanks," the Doctor replied quietly.  
"What happened?" Yaz gently prodded.  
"She died," the Doctor answered simply. The fam waited.  
"Clara traveled with me for a while. She met the two faces right before this one. She didn't have her parents anymore - just her boyfriend, Danny. Then he died too.  
"Clara didn't really have anyone to tie her back to Earth anymore. When we traveled, she started taking more risks. Became more reckless. She thought I was invincible. She thought she could be too."  
The Doctor fixed them with a stare. "When I told you it was dangerous, I wasn't kidding. I've lost lots of people. I almost lost my entire race. I've lived for thousands of years. Are you sure?"  
'Are you? Are you ever sure, Doctor?'  
The fam looked at each other, seriously considering Clara's story. Then they nodded.  
The Doctor suddenly found herself in a group hug. Her new friends were her companions. Talking, surprisingly, had actually helped.  
However, despite the joy of having her fam at her back, the Doctor couldn't help but be scared for them.  
A single tear slid down her cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> Watching Yaz, I'm somewhat afraid that she's going to become really reckless too.  
> I wrote this story a while ago, but I'm only now posting it because I had to type up what I wrote on paper.  
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!


End file.
